Norman Spinrad - Controversies

Controversies

Spinrad has been called "perhaps the most controversial American component of SF's New Wave movement of the mid-to-late '60s, and if such an idea is conceivable, has probably irritated and offended as many readers and critics as has Ellison". Spinrad has often had problems finding publishers for his novels. He had difficulty finding a publisher willing to print Bug Jack Barron as a book. Publisher Michael Moorcock printed the novel in installments in the magazine New Worlds. The newsstand company W.H. Smith refused to distribute one of the issues because of the installment of Spinrad's novel. The British Arts Council, which subsidized New Worlds, put public pressure on W.H. Smith and forced the company to distribute the issue. This led to denunciations of Spinrad, The Arts Council, and New Worlds in the British Parliament

Spinrad could not find an American publisher for his 2007 novel Osama the Gun. "ne rejection letter, foaming at the mouth, declared that no American publisher would touch it." So he decided to self-publish the novel as an e-book.